Ring in the New Year
by Zane's Girl- Jo
Summary: Ela & Jason ring in the new year....& Dee & Ela have an interesting conversation. Also... the origins of their oldest daughter's name.... Mid-KMG setting. HAPPY NEW YEAR! WARNING: DRUNKEN DEE! Sorry it's long. Posted @ EXACTLY 12:00 PACIFIC TIME! COOL!


**Ring in the New Year**

**Rifiuto: Non Miriena**

**Summary: Ela and Jason ring in the new year....and Dee and Ela have an interesting conversation. _Also_... the origins of their oldest daughter's name.... Mid-KMG setting. Deela. Elason. Tidina. HAPPY NEW YEAR! WARNING: DRUNKEN DEE!! Sorry it's so long. Posted at EXACTLY 12:00 Pacific time!!! Cool! **

**A/N: I had fun writing Dee as a drunk- I don't know why, but I can just picture her _absolutely plastered_ when she's giving Ela advice on the pregnancy and birth of her child. Especially when she and Ela are walking together. For some reason, she just seems like the type of person who doesn't drink much, but when she does, she gets completely plowed. You know those people who can have one? two? drinks and be knocked on their asses for the rest of the night? (I'm one of those types- one drink, and I'm already sitting on the ground with my eyes level to the table top as I pour my second- two's my limit- barely two- one and a quarter) That's the kind of drunk I think of when I think of Dee in KMG and TMI- especially in this. She just seems the type. As for Ela, well, she doesn't exactly know _what_ to think.**

_"It's a girl!" _

_"What's her name?" _

_"I don't know, I never--"_

_"Delaney."_

The party at the townhouse on 5th Avenue, South East Manhattan, was slowly starting to dwindle down- not because everyone was bored- but because they were all heading down to Times Square to ring in the new year.

2024 was ending, and 2025 was beginning.

And for one couple, that meant a new life, a new marriage, and a new baby on the way.

"You aren't going to wear the catsuit you wore in _Rent_ tonight, are you, Dee?" Ela Tipton asked, as they walked down to Times Square. Dee snorted.

"Please. Like _I_ could fit into that now." She rolled her eyes, examining her best friend. "But you could."

Ela raised her eyebrows as her husband snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

_"Me? Yeah right." _She scoffed.

"You could, you know."

One delicate, perfectly-plucked, black eyebrow raised.

"Um... Dee.... I don't know if you have noticed, but.... in _case_ you've forgotten, I've got a baby growing inside me and.... I currently can't fit into anything that I _used_ to."

"Ela, you're only four months along." Dee argued. Taye slipped his arm around her waist, as the two couples walked side by side.

"I may only be four months, but all my old clothes feel like they're several sizes _too_ small." Ela replied.

"That's because they _are_ too small. Not to mention the fact that your waistline is thickening and your womb is getting bigger because the baby's growing. Add that to the known fact that you're tummy will soon be the size of a small--"

"Taxi?" Ela asked, sarcastically.

"No. A small- okay, we'll go with taxi- but... look on the bright side, Ela. You're carrying the child you and Jason created together. This baby is going to have--"

"His coloring and my movie rental addiction?" The younger girl filled in, taking lyrics from Dee's song _Minuet _and throwing them back at her. She glared at the younger woman.

"_No_. Okay,_ maybe. _But... Ela just think.... in five months, you'll be the size of a.... a... a house--" She snapped her fingers, a light going off in her head. "_That's it! That's the saying!_ The size of a small house!" She stopped, thinking. "Or was it horse? No... _no_ I'm_ pretty sure_ it's house..." The others rolled their eyes. She waved her hand, and continued on. "Anway, you'll be be the size of a small house or horse or dorsel fin or something and..."

Ela raised her eyes as she watched her friend.

"Dee, you're drunk."

"Come on, give up the beer." Jason reached out to take the glass bottle from his friend, and she swatted his hand away.

"No! My beer! Gi your own." She snapped, taking a sip. "Anwya...where were we?"

"Um.... something about my wife being the size of a small house in five months." Jason said, a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth. Ela smacked him lightly.

"Right! And... and then of course, you have the mood swings and the cravings and the swollen ankles- those, unfortunately don't go down, sorry El, gonna have to get your favorite pair of heels in a size up from now on-" Dee said, pointing up with her thumb when she mentioned the shoes.

"Good to know, Dee." Ela said, looking down at her feet, which were only slightly obscured by her still small, but rapidly growing tummy. Then, she took a sip of her herbal tea- prescribed for her morning sickness by her doctor.

"Oh! And then... then, you have the birth. And that is hell- _trust me, I know_." Ela and Jason looked at each other, not sure whether to trust their friend's advice or not. "I mean, first your mucus plug goe, and that stars the whole thing, and then you start contrasting, whish is basically when your kidneys start getting bigger. After that, your water breaks, and then it's all down hill from there- _literally_. Beca--" She saw someone pass, that she thought she recognized, and turned to wave. "Hey! Hey Shondra! Shondra! O.... okay, bey!" She turned back around, and continued walking,"Di.... did you see that? That was Shonra Huktablez..." stepping off the curve and slipping over a pot hole, landing on her rump. "_Wo-_ophs!"

They stopped, as Taye and Jason helped her up.

"Okay, come on Dee. Up you go." They helped her to her feet as Ela waited. Once she was upright again, she giggled.

"Come on Dee, keep walking." Taye said. Her face brightened as she saw someone pass that she thought she also knew and waved, turning to follow.

"Hi!"

"No Dee, _this way_." Jason said, turning her back around and leading her forward as Ela watched from her vantage point by his side.

"So, ansyways..." Dee continued, a little detered from her two detours. She pulled away from the guys and went to Ela, wrapping an arm around her friend's shoulders and walking with her. "when you start pushing..." Ela looked at her, nodding for her to go on. Dee thought a moment, before speaking. "When you star pushing... now don be frigin.... but..... when you stars pushing.... this... thing will come out..."

"The baby's head." Dee looked at her.

"Yeah, how did you know? You haven't had the baby yet! Unless you just had it!" She stopped and thought. "Wow.... boy or girl?" Ela looked at her.

"I... I don't know. I haven't had it yet."

"You haven't?" Ela shook her head. "Then how did you--"

"I've watched documentaries, Jason and I are taking Lamaaze classes, we've talked to our doctor..." Dee nodded. The two had stopped walking by now, and faced each other, as their husbands caught up.

"Oh.... who's Jason?"

"Jason. My husband."

"Oh right..... he's the baby of your father, right?" She asked, panicking.

"The father of my baby?" Ela corrected._ "God, of course! Why wouldn't he be?"_

"Well.... you could have been copsulationing with someone else." Dee replied, taking a sip of her beer. Ela watched her.

"Really?" Dee nodded. "Like who?" Dee shrugged.

"Like..." She turned when her husband got to her. "Like Scott." Ela's dark eyes flicked to Taye and back.

"Taye? _No!_ Not that I _wouldn't_ have his children if we were the same age and married. He's gorgeous. But- and it's nothing against you, Taye." Ela said, quickly. He smiled at her.

"Don't worry about it, Ela. No offense taken." He said, slipping his arm around Dee's waist.

"But he's not my type. Jason is. And don't worry Dee, Jason _is_ the father of this baby." She said, as the man in question wrapped his arms loosely around her waist and kissed her hair.

"Oh..... so.... you'll start pushing and this... this human will come out.... or start to come out. And you have to keep pushing until it's all the way out. And then it star to cry and you'll get to hold it but.... it'll be covrd in blood and fluid and water and so they'll have to clean it and then you can hold it. And after it's born, this.... like... sack-thing comes out-"

"The placenta." Ela corrected. Dee nodded.

"Right! And it's like.... big and stretcy--"

"Because that's what the baby's been living in for the last nine months."

"Yeah. And....and it.... well you don't have to keep it. They get rid of it. But the baby is conekted to this like.... cord-"

"The umbilical cord."

"Yeah. And they cut it and then save the blood in it- supposedly theiry's blood in it- I think doctors are vampires in disguise... but anywas.... they give you the..... the..." She snapped her fingers trying to figure out the right words.

"The baby?" Jason supplied.

"Yes! Thank you! The baby and.... and lay... they lay it on your chest...and then it starts _sucking_..." Her eyes widened as she described what nursing was like, and as she took a sip of her drink, Taye took the bottle from her hands. "like it's sucking the life out of you...." Ela watched her friend with a weary spark in her dark eyes. She knew Dee wasn't usually like this; Dee hardly ever drank, so this type of behavior and conversation was exceedlingly rare for her friend.

"Okay, Dee, you've had enough." Taye told his wife, taking the bottle and dropping it into the nearby trash can.

"Hey! I wans't done with that!" She cried, watching him. By now, they had made it downtown, where the countdown to the new year was beginning.

"Come on, Dee, let's sit down." Taye said, guiding her to a bench someone had set up. The two couples took a seat, joining in the countdown.

"10.... 9.... 8..."

"Ela!" Ela turned, as Dee gently grabbed her arm.

"Yeah, Dee?" She asked, leaning over her husband to hear her friend.

"7...6....5...4..."

"What are you going to name the baby?" She had the attention of all three now.

"Delaney?"

"No! What are you--"

"3...."

_"What? Delaney? Dee! I can't hear you!"_

"2...."

"The baby! What are you going to name the baby?"

_"Why do you keep saying Delaney? We don't know a Delaney!"_ Ela cried over the noise of the crowd.

"No! The--"

"1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The ball dropped, and Jason pulled Ela to him, kissing her passionately as the world stopped and time froze. She gave in to the kiss, grabbing a handful of her husband's shirt as his hand went to her stomach. Movement in her belly caused her to break the kiss as the clock struck 12:01, and she looked down at her growing tummy. Slowly, she laid her hands on her stomach, feeling the movement again. Her head rose, and she looked into her husband's eyes. Shock passed between them silently. His voice full of surprise, Jason asked,

"Did it just--"

"Yeah. I think it did." Ela said. They looked down at her belly again, where the evidence of her pregnancy was already being seen through her clothes. Tonight, marked the beginning of her fifth month, bringing the birth of their child one month closer. Tears gathered in her eyes, and she wiped them away quickly, before returning her hands to her belly, sniffling. "I think our baby just moved." She looked up at him again. "It's moving. Jason, it's moving! Our baby's moving!" She cried, throwing her arms around her husband's neck. He held her, relaxing as he rubbed her back, the feel of his wife's slightly bulging tummy against his shirt. When they pulled away, she wiped tears off her cheeks. "I've waited to feel her move... and now she is." Ela said.

"She."

"What?"

"You said she." A smile came over his wife's face, and she looked down at her tummy, seeing her husband's hands rest over it, cradling her belly and the baby inside gently. Slowly, she covered his hands with hers. She let out a gasp of delight at the feel of their child moving around.

"I just.... I want a girl. I know you want a son and...."

"Would you think me insane if I told you that I'm _praying_ that we have a daughter forming inside you?" He asked. She looked at him, touched.

"Really?" He nodded.

"Yes. A beautiful baby with... black hair and brown eyes and.... a dimpled smile. I want a baby girl. I want to be the father of a beautiful baby girl. And when you give that final push I want to hear the doctor tell us that we have a daughter. I could never be prouder, than being the father of a daddy's girl." She cupped his cheek, tears in her eyes.

"Thank you." She whispered, one hand cupping his cheek as the other cradled her belly. "For giving me this baby."

"You're welcome." He whispered softly, capturing her lips in a gentle kiss. When they pulled away, they turned, seeing Dee cradled in her husband's arms, asleep.

"Ready to go home?" Taye asked, getting up and setting Dee gently on her feet. He wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her to him.

"Dee is going to have one hell of a hangover later tonight." Ela said.

"If she's awake tonight. She may sleep all day." Jason said. Ela chuckled softly. "Happy new year, Ela."

"Happy new year, Jason." She whispered back, capturing his lips with hers. Then, he pulled her to her feet, and they went home.

Four months later, the little girl they both so desperately wanted would enter the world, and Jason would have the perfect name for her- and all because of a miscommunication on New Year's Eve. Dee, however, wouldn't remember any of it.


End file.
